The Story Thus Far
by CammyWhammy
Summary: Wendy had said goodbye to Peter and it was the second time Peter has ever been so wounded by a girl. Based very largely on The Little White Bird. This story aims to bring a new ending to Peter Pan using the true past happenings from J.M. Barrie's works and throwing a bit of magic and fun into it. Read if you want to know about Peter's past, and what I wish would've been his future.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Story Thus Far

Everyone should experience some great adventure in their lifetime. It is the thing that helps us close our eyes to life and float off onto the 'after', whatever that may be. Wendy would be condemned to suffer through two great adventures, and it was not in her favor to adventure so much! Wendy had had her fun in Neverland, she was ready to close her eyes and go to the 'after' of childhood. She had fought pirates, danced with Indians, spoken to mermaids, and even managed to give away her kiss to an unforgettable boy. As Peter Pan left her by the window to leave her side forever more, he promised to always keep it. But no sweet words could stop her from waving goodbye to him and return to her mother. It would be the second time that a window had offended him so.

As he saw Mrs. Darling rush in with arms open to her Peter felt a pang of envy so sharp that he nearly could not stand to watch. He almost wished that Wendy's window had been barred as well, just as his had been long ago, but Mrs. Darling had waited for her to come back when Peter's mother had not.

We can't both have her, lady. He remembered whispering to Mrs. Darling one night, and he had been right. Mrs. Darling had won out. She had won Wendy, and Peter had lost. Feeling alone and unloved, Peter returned to Neverland.

Where Neverland really is, no one really knows except for Peter, but since it is important to the story, I shall let you know, too.

It all started in Kensington Gardens, and if you shall need a map to imagine it, picture this:

There is a large Pond in the center where the ducks live

The Pond is shaded by a large Chestnut which houses the Thrush Nests

It is surrounded by a path frequented by prams and nannies, called the Baby Walk

Further down the Baby Walk there are a large number of Fig trees, where the Fairies live

Then at the left-hand side of the Gardens there is a wall of rushing water known as the Serpentine River

There is a bridge which crosses it, that if you stand on it you can spy a small island in the center of the River

On that small island, the Great Thrush Solomon Caw resides, with his senate of nest judgers and pram testers

It is there that Neverland really is.

The island is popular to mothers as when they yearn to receive a child, they make small paper boats with their requests written inside for the senate of thrushes to select a baby bird to turn into a child. Should it be one baby or two? Twins? Perhaps a request for red hair, or a girl? Peter's mother never really cared, but she did tuck in a five-pound note in the boat and wished for an extraordinary child.

The thrushes, not knowing much what to do with a five-pound note, simply did the best they could and gifted her with Peter Pan. He was extraordinary from the start as he popped out of his little egg much too early. By the time the rest of his nest mates emerged from their eggs, and they all were dropped down into the prams of their mothers, Peter remembered being a bird much more than he could remember being a boy. So sometimes he still flew.

"What an extraordinary boy!" Thought his mother, and felt it was a five-pound note well spent. But one fateful night, when Peter was just a week old, he made the mistake of dreaming. He dreamt so wonderfully that he forgot altogether that he had become a boy and flew straight out of the window. He frolicked in Kensington Gardens, flew over the Serpentine River, and fell asleep in a Thrush's Nest on the island, for that is naturally where a little bird should rest. Solomon was confounded indeed when he found Peter tucked in among the baby thrushes.

"Go home, boy." Solomon called. "Go home!" Peter stared up at him in confusion.

"But I am a bird. I sleep in nests." Peter claimed. But Solomon made Peter see that he was indeed a boy. He pointed out his feet which were toes instead of claws, and his nose which was not a beak, and Peter then remembered solemnly that he was not a bird. He should return to mother, he thought, but then gazed across that the Serpentine River. He should fly across, just as he did before, but now Peter had lost faith in himself that he was a bird and could no longer fly.

Trapped on the island by the Serpentine, Peter grew up as any normal boy would, save for his influence of the birds. He was forever glad, as birds are always in good humor, and he learned how to sing and build nests. But Peter would always be peeking from the island, past the bridge to the small part of the Gardens that he could see. Other children were play there, and the birds would bring him toys and bread from their tables. Peter did not know how to play and dearly wanted to learn, so he built a nest to float across the river.

Once in Kensington Gardens, Peter thought of going back to his Mother, and so he did by the fairy's aid. Peter played songs he had learned from the birds to the fairies and the fairies rewarded him with the gift of flight.

When Peter first flew to his mother's window, it was open, and his mother sat waiting for him, his name still on her lips. He felt he should go to her, but then again, he wanted to learn how to play with the other children, and to dance with the fairies, and so Peter returned to the Gardens thinking that his mother would always keep the window open for him.

He played and he frolicked, and when Lock Out time came, Peter played music with the fairies. Sometimes he should run into a child and he would shyly say 'hello'. They were always scared and awkward as it was not usual for them to be alone in the Gardnes after dark, so Peter played for them too until the gates opened the next day. When the weather turned cold, Peter was not so lucky, as he did not always find the children in time before they succumbed to the cold. Using the little shovel that the birds had brought to him, Peter would bury them in the park with little stones to make their beds. He would always take care to bury them two by two as Peter knew so well there was nothing quite so awful as loneliness. The ones that he did find in time, were happy to be saved. Peter brought them to a little house fit just for one to keep them warm for the night. One child was so grateful that she imagined him a Donkey so that he could get around the park more easily.

Still Peter grew quite naturally here, but as the years went on, he finally began to think of Mother again. It was high time to go home, and he wished now to grow into a wonderful boy for her. He flew to her window once again, ready to start life anew, and was greeted by the barred window. The Lock Out time, as he forever remembered it, was the most painful thing Peter had ever experienced. He was strange, in between bird, boy, and fairy, and could never assimilate to life with the children of Kensington Gardens.

And so, Neverland was born. The fairies had always had great affection for Peter Pan and would grant him whatever he wished so long as it kept him near them. It might even be suggested that they were the ones who tricked him into staying out so late. But who could truly blame them? The small island in the Serpentine became a real island, with wonder, joy, and eternal springtime. Now the Lost Children simply had to be flown across to the eternal springtime of Neverland instead of buried somewhere in the park. To Peter, it was the most perfect place imaginable, except for this one troublesome thing.

After the abandonment of his mother, Peter's heart had turned to ice. It beat no more, just as if he himself had succumbed to the cold winter of the Gardens.

"He will never love." Declared the court physician.

And yet, here was Peter nursing a broken heart. It did not beat, and Peter did not grow, but still he felt the sting of abandonment.

"I shall never love again…" He told himself privately. And he was right, he would never lover again, but he was loving still.

AN: Most of this is the actual summary of The Little White Bird, which I highly recommend you read. It is free and available to the public, as JM Barrie is the coolest person who ever lived and gifted the rights to his works to the Children's Hospital (they still get funding from his books!). There is a story developing, but I just wanted to get a good strong base of facts that I can build on later. I always feel like I throw things in my stories that may confuse people.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

How Peter had Come to Meet Wendy

Why had Peter ever come to Wendy's window in the first place? That is also a question seldom asked. It is not as if Peter spends his time peering through all the windows of London. No, there was a very real reason why Wendy's was the one.

It all started quite shortly after he had received Maisie's gift of a donkey to ride about the Gardens with. As it was a cold and snowy night, Peter was ever vigilant. On his watch, he heard a sharp distinct voice of a lady. He was in the habit of hearing them, and sometimes they called out the names of the children they were looking for.

"Joseph, Joseph!" They would scream, and Peter would then know what to write upon the little rocks on the graves. Peter was not so heartless as to leave them there, screaming their child's name in vain, as there is nothing so much solemn as a childless mother. He would lead them, little by little by the call of his pipes to the place where their children lay, and Peter would watch as they mourned, sometimes digging up their little bodies and holding them in that gruesome sort of way. Peter never really understood mothers.

This particular night, the woman screamed out "Peter, Peter!", and although there are plenty of Peters in the world, Peter knew that it was he that she was seeking. With a very strange and hopeful feeling he peeked at her through the trees, but he could not see her. It was as if she were leading him with the call of his name, same as he led the mothers with the call of his pipes. He wondered, then, if he were heading to his own little grave. But, alas, finally he saw the figure. That figure which once stood on the other side of the barred window. His fateful, and unfaithful mother.

"Peter, Peter!" She screamed still, and he did not know if he should reveal himself. She held herself in a strange sort of way, as if time had had some effect on her. Why, after all this time, had she come to seek him? After all, the other child with which he was replaced, was already whiskered and greyed.

But all mothers come back to haunt their children, see? It is an instinct so powerful, so ingrained, that even after death, a mother will seek her child. And so it is with this motivation that this elderly woman hobbled about the Gardens saying.

"Peter, Peter!"

So Peter presented himself.

"Here I am, mother." He said dressed in leaves and vines. The figure turned to face him and there never was a face so betrayed.

"I am seeking my son, Peter, have you seen him?" She asked, and Peter was confused.

"I am Peter." He answered. The figure shook her head in a disbelieving manner.

"My Peter is but one week old! He is a most extraordinary boy, and I cannot bear to part with him."

With those words, Peter's heart broke some, as he truly believed his mother to have forgotten all about him. So he pretended to be David instead, and led her to a little grave where she could cry over some other boy whose mother had not come to find him in the gardens.

Watching her there, grieving his absence made Peter realize that she, too, had been barred from him, and he wondered if she felt that he had abandoned her in the same respect that he felt she abandoned him. That night, Peter forgave his mother. Yet the memory still hurt, and it could not undo the strange and dramatic life he lived now in the gardens, but Peter was at least granted the gift of seeing his mother off to the 'after' and gave her a kiss on the cheek saying "Goodbye Mother."

It was then that Peter decided to go back to the fateful barred window to see what had become of the small life he had as a boy, and was met with the Darling Nursery instead. It was his shadow, not wholly convinced that this was not _his_ chest of drawers that ruffled through its contents and awakened the children.

Wendy gasped, Peter made to flee, and his shadow, still sorting through underthings, was snipped off at the feet by the clack of the window.


End file.
